Our Holy Quran says,
“There is no compulsion (or force) in matter or religion” (Quran 2:256). It urges use of wisdom and politeness. “Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious” (Quran 16.125).
The meaning of Islam
The word Islam means peace so how come such a religion can teaches us violence? Our Holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself teaches us the lesson of politeness, love and forgiveness. In fact many of the non Muslims at the time of Prophet Muhammad accepted Islam just because of the loving, polite, caring, forgiving and righteous nature of our great Holy prophet.
The concept of jihad in Islam
Nowadays some of the people spread this misconception that Islam is a violent religion who teaches terrorism in terms of jihad though it is not true. The true meaning of jihad is struggle. This struggle can be against the people who places hurdles in the way of establishing peace or against cruelty but Islam strictly forbids harming any of the innocent creature on earth weather he is a Muslim or a non Muslim.
Fundamentalism
People relate extremist Muslims militants as fundamentalist. In reality fundamentalism in any religion means attaching to the fundamentals of that religion so a non Muslim who follows any other religion can be a fundamentalist. Nowadays this term has been specifically used for extremist Muslim militants who are involved in disturbing activities which is completely wrong Islam strictly forbids such kind of activities.